Galatians 3 Footnotes

3:17 No chronological problem exists between Gn 15:13 (“four hundred years”) and Ex 12:40 (“430 years”). While four hundred could easily be a general, rounded-off time span, the Jewish rabbis’ ancient resolution is that Gn 15:13 speaks of Israel’s captivity in Egypt and Ex 12:40 speaks of the longer gap from Abraham’s entrance into Canaan to Moses’s leading the people out of Egypt. Hence, this latter span includes the additional thirty years.

3:28 Christianity did not erase ethnic, slavery, and gender distinctions (e.g., Eph 5:22–6:9); it made them irrelevant to entering into a fully privileged covenantal relationship as a child of God and of Abraham. This was radically different from the Greco-Roman culture that emphasized honor and status based upon one’s family or wealth.